Change Is Here. Climate Change.

DEAR Barack Obama and Mitt Romney—if I may be so familiar, as you are with me in your fundraising emails.

You are campaigning for our nation’s highest office in a year of record-breaking heat waves, droughts, floods, and monster storms. More than half the contiguous U.S. is under drought conditions. In June wildfires destroyed 1.3 million acres across the country. More than 40,000 daily heat records were broken–by July.

Climate scientists tell us that the signals are loud and clear: We are experiencing global warming–NOW. Our climate is changing, more and more rapidly—because of greenhouse gas pollution. We have compromised the thin crust of atmosphere that protects our lives on this planet.

I’m a mom, and like all parents, I want to do everything I can to keep my children out of harm’s way. I assume you feel the same way about your beloved children. What is your plan to talk to Americans about the urgency of climate change, not only for us, but for the world our children—and your children—will inherit?

What is your plan to lead the country into a new era of energy efficiency? What is your plan to cut the carbon and methane pollution that is contributing so heavily to the atmospheric “blanket” that is trapping heat?

Whether we are Republicans or Democrats or Independents–waiting for more information about our candidates to decide how we vote—we are all in this together. Please, talk to us about global warming.